Everyone Needs a Home

This article was originally posted on the Doing Justice website

‘Where do you live?’ is such a bland, commonplace enquiry that most of us answer without thinking – as author Geraldine Brooks writes, even a moderately verbal toddler can answer with a street number, name and town or suburb.

But that’s not the same as a home. Home is where we spend time with those we love, make memories, enjoy our privacy. It’s a space we can make our own, helping us find the peace and stability to take on all the other parts of our lives.

The right to ‘home’ is one that an increasing number of Australians are being denied.

Anglicare Australia’s annual Rental Affordability Snapshot was released today. It shows that all over Australia, renters are faced with impossible choices, between keeping a roof over their heads and food, medical attention or school shoes.

In Brisbane, median rents have dropped for the first time in eight years of Snapshots, and there are 1,000 more rentals available in the Brisbane metro area. The real estate industry is talking about a ‘glut’ of rental accommodation.

So it’s ironic that while prospective tenants at the top end of the market are reportedly being offered rent-free weeks and free wifi as inducements, Brisbane rentals are as unaffordable as ever for those on low incomes.

Of more than 8,000 properties surveyed in the Brisbane metro area, only 99 could be considered affordable and appropriate for households on income support, and only 1,100 for those on minimum wage.

The situation is particularly dire for families on Parenting Payment or Newstart. Renting a two bedroom property can absorb from 64% to 76% of the household income for a single parent on benefits, with one child.

The Brisbane families in the ‘best’ position of all those surveyed were families of four with at least two minimum wages, with just over 1,000 properties (12% of the total) both affordable and appropriate for this household type. That of course assumes that the families in question don’t also face other challenges in finding an appropriate dwelling – that proximity to work, or availability and cost of transport aren’t issues; that no one in the family has a disability … even owning a cat or dog reduces the number of properties that are available.

These aren’t fussy demands. They are things that everyday families and individuals think about and negotiate when they’re looking for a home.

The difference is that people on low incomes have far fewer options to consider, and the Snapshot shows that some have almost no options at all. This is even without taking into account the further vulnerability of those identified in community consultation carried out by the Queensland Government. Finding and sustaining safe, secure accommodation — a home — is likely to be even harder for a long list of Queenslanders, including seniors, young people transitioning from care, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, people with a disability, people experiencing a mental health issue, families escaping domestic and family violence, people impacted by drug and alcohol use, people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, people exiting custody, returned services people and, as above, people with a pet.

We all know there’s a crisis in rent affordability. But as Anglicare Australia Executive Director, Kasy Chambers pointed out this morning at the launch of the report, now it’s time for government to reclaim its responsibility for ensuring that all Australians have a place to call home.

This article from The Guardian summarises what the report means ahead of this year’s budget.

Also here’s a short interview with Karen Crouch, Executive Director of Anglicare Southern Queensland on the ABC concerning the situation in Brisbane.

You can view and download the full report here:
Rental Affordability Snapshot 2017 – Anglicare Australia